


The Doctor Will See You Now

by cazmalfoy



Series: IronStrange Husbands [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Established Relationship, IronStrange, M/M, Post-Iron Man 1, secret husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 03:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: Tony returns from Afghanistan and is immediately assessed by a doctor who is very familiar to him.





	The Doctor Will See You Now

Tony was agitated. Anyone within a ten mile radius would have been able to tell that.

Every one except James Rhodes, apparently.

Honestly, he’d just stepped off the plane after being rescued in Afghanistan. Surely going home wasn’t too much to ask for. Well, maybe not home - he had a press conference to hold first. Then he could go take a hot shower and go to bed.

“Look, this is pointless,” Tony muttered petulantly. “I’ve already told you, I’m fine.” He wasn’t - a glowing light in the centre of his chest proved that perfectly - but there was no way Tony was ready to tell anyone about that. He hadn’t even processed what it meant yet.

Beside him Rhodey rolled his eyes but didn’t shift from where he was standing guard by the entrance to the hospital room. They were waiting for a doctor and had been for almost twenty minutes. Tony wasn’t used to waiting for things. He didn’t like it.

Whatever reply Rhodey may have been willing to give - not that Tony thought he actually would say anything - was interrupted a few minutes later when the door to the private room was opened and the doctor he had been assigned stepped in.

The man was taller than Tony, with his wavy hair styled quickly but neatly, as though he had been in a hurry to leave the house that morning. 

There was a tiredness on his face that gave away how little sleep he’d had in the last few days. Possibly even months.

A full minute of silence passed between them, then the doctor turned to face Rhodes, ignoring Tony completely. “Thank you, Colonel Rhodes,” he said, extending his hand to Rhodey. “If you’ll please wait outside, I’ll make sure Mr Stark is still in working order.”

Rhodey took the proffered hand and shook it, throwing a not-at-all-subtle and insanely smug look over at Tony. “I’ll wait outside,” he stated, turning on his heel, heading through the still open door and pulling it closed behind him.

When they were alone again, the doctor turned to face Tony with a raised eyebrow. He was clearly waiting for the shorter man to be the first to say something. 

Tony really didn’t want to give the other the satisfaction of being the first to speak, but he really couldn’t stand sitting in silence. Something the doctor knew perfectly well, damn him.

“I don’t know why you’re here. Should’t you be in New York? You’re a neurosurgeon; there’s nothing wrong with my brain,” Tony muttered petulantly, folding his arms across his chest, wincing a little when they brushed on the sensitive skin around the wound he had aggravated with the Mark 1 suit.

The doctor smirked. “That’s debatable,” he retorted. “When I heard on the news that _the_ Tony Stark had been rescued and was on his way back to his home in California, I volunteered my services to make sure no damage had happened to one of the brightest minds in our generation.”

His words were automated and expected from him. Bragging about his prowess in his chosen field; all the reason why no one had argued against him leaving his job in the Big Apple to fly all the way across the country. 

But Tony knew him better than anyone else in the world and there was an undercurrent of relief and fear in his voice.

Tony unfolded his arms and reached for the doctor’s hands. “Stephen, I’m fine,” he swore, only lying a little. “A little banged up and hungry, but that’s nothing a shower and Burger King can’t fix,” he added, trying to lighten Stephen’s mood.

And it worked. For a moment. 

The corners of Stephen’s mouth turned up in a small smile, before the serious mask was back once more. Without another word, he released Tony’s hands and started unbuttoning Tony’s shirt.

Panic flared in Tony’s chest and he thought about pushing Stephen away, making him stop his inspection before it had truly begun. But then he realised that raising the other genius’s suspicions wasn’t going to make things easier for himself.

Instead, he settled on a not-at-all-funny quip. “Gee, doc, if you wanted to get my shirt off, all you had to do was ask.”

Stephen rolled his eyes but didn’t stop methodically unfastening the buttons. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want. My doctor instincts are telling me to make sure the patient is healthy, but the hornier side of me just wants to get his husband naked.”

Tony laughed sharply at his words, before wincing again at the pain that shot through his chest.

This time the action wasn’t missed by Stephen - not that Tony was sure he had missed the first one - and he sped up. He frowned when he saw the black T-Shirt Tony was wearing underneath.

Or it could have been the now-visible glowing light that made him pull that face, Tony couldn’t tell.

“Tony…” Stephen began, then cut himself off with a shake of the head; as though he couldn’t find the right words to address the situation.

Lucky for him, if there was one thing Tony Stark was rarely short off, it was words. “So, _dear_ , a funny thing happened while I was in Afghanistan.” Stephen rolled his eyes at the tone, but didn’t interrupt him. “Apparently when a rocket goes off a few feet away from you, it leaves a pretty lasting impression.”

Stephen drew in a sharp breath at the reminder of how close Tony had come to death. Tony was sure he had already heard on the news what had happened, but he imagined having it confirmed was akin to a spouse’s worst nightmare.

Not that the pair of them were traditional spouses. They weren’t even together; not technically. A college fling, an alcohol fuelled wedding ceremony, two separate and very different career paths, and almost three thousand miles made for interesting life choices.

Keeping their relationship secret from everyone in their lives hadn’t been an intentional life choice and it hadn’t even been anything either of them had decided or discussed. It was just something they didn’t talk about with their friends, so neither of them saw the point in bringing it up.

They liked to pretend it was probably laziness that had kept either of them from filing for divorce or annulment. But Tony knew better. For him, he enjoyed having someone he could call up and talk to all night if he wanted to, but didn’t have to worry about pleasing every day.

He didn’t know if Stephen felt the same way and he had never asked, but he liked to think they agreed the situation they had was the way to go.

Plus, the sex they had when they ended up in the same place at the same time was _phenomenal._

“The electromagnet needed something bigger than the car battery to get me out of the cave, so I built this,” Tony explained, waving his hand in front of the circle on his chest, being careful to not touch the wound.

A frown creased Stephen’s forehead at Tony’s words. “A car battery was powering your heart,” he whispered to himself, shaking his head. “Tony, you need to be seen by a heart surgeon _immediately.”_

Tony smiled affectionately and placed his hands over Stephen’s. “There’s nothing they can tell me that I don’t already know,” he pointed out. When Stephen over his mouth again, he continued, “I know the shrapnel is in my heart and there’s nothing they can do about it. Medicine isn’t that advanced yet.” It looked like Stephen was going to argue with him, so instead he cut him off before the words could form. “Don’t forget I have a few doctorates as well, I know a thing or two.”

“None of them in medicine,” Stephen reminded his husband. Wordlessly he leant forward, pressing his forehead against Tony’s and closing his eyes, breathing deeply.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Tony knew Stephen enough to know that he needed to process what was happening on his own without any distractions from Tony’s endless babbling.

Eventually, Stephen’s eyes flickered open and he met Tony’s brown gaze with his own. “What are you planning on doing now you’re back?” he asked softly. Tony tried to plaster an innocent expression on his face that there was no way anyone would be fooled by. “I know you, Tony. There’s no way you’d keep something like an electromagnet in your chest if you weren’t planning on doing something with it. Lack of medical progress or not.”

Tony scowled at that, but he didn’t argue. How could he, when Stephen was perfectly right about what he was planning.

“SI has been making weapons for too long,” he stated simply with a small shrug of his shoulders. “It’s time I do something about it.”

He didn’t elaborate further on his plan. He couldn’t when he didn’t actually know what he was planning on doing. All he knew was that he needed to do _something_.

When he didn’t say anything, Stephen sighed and leant closer. “Just promise me you won’t do something stupid like getting yourself kidnapped again,” he instructed, his lips brushing against Tony’s with each word he spoke.

The corners of Tony’s mouth twitched upward in a smirk. “You know me…”

“Like I said,” Stephen retorted, closing the already minute gap and pressing his lips against his husband’s in a kiss.

A kiss which felt different from the usual ones they shared. Both of them were used to going months without seeing each other, and the kisses they shared on reuniting showed that. But this wasn’t one of those kisses.

This was life affirming; Stephen’s way of making sure that Tony was still alive, and Tony’s way of reminding himself that he was home and not back in Afghanistan.


End file.
